Million Dollar Question

Usually banks pay interest daily or monthly, but for simplicity let us stick with interest paid once per year. At the end of the second year you will have $1050 + $1050*0.05 = $1102.50. Here is what your account looks like at the end of the first several years:

1. $1050
2. $1102.
3. $1157.625
4. $1215.50625
5. $1276.28156
6. . . .

Let us say that you are interested in becoming a millionaire. How long will you need to keep your money in the bank for it to reach one million dollars? There are financial formulas for this (most spreadsheets have these formulas built in, as do financial hand calculators.) But pretend that you don't know that. Here is the outline of a program to calculate how many years it will take:

class millionDollarYears
{

  public static void main( String[] args )
  {
    double dollars = 1000.00 ;
    int    year = _______________;     

    while ( dollars < 1000000.00 )
    {
      // add another year's interest

      dollars = _______________;

      year    = _______________;
    }

    System.out.println("It took " + year + " years to reach your goal.");
  }

}

The value of the bank account, dollars keeps building up until the goal has been reached or exceeded.